Underground, Camp, Tropicamp – terms that have been re-examined over the last few years, in numerous events in various locations, in part triggered by the rediscovery and reassessment of the legacy of Jack Smith (1932-1989), queer icon of the New York Underground. What experiences have we drawn from this historical perspective for the present? What is this present from which we can open ourselves up to a film history that is still largely attributed to the margins of cinema, if not even its flip side? And from our current perspective, what is the connection between these films and others that have been subsumed under the terms “avant-garde,” for instance, “structural cinema”? How do attributions of term or definition take place currently or retrospectively, what present needs are reflected in them, and what is their reality for us today?